Vietnam, New Zealand agree to boost all-round cooperation

Overview of the talks between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern (Photo: VNA)

Auckland
(VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart,
Jacinda Ardern, agreed on major directions to boost the future Vietnam-New
Zealand cooperation in all fields during their talks in Auckland, New Zealand,
on March 13.

In politics, the two
sides concurred to maintain the exchanges of delegations, especially high-level
ones, while strengthening people-to-people exchanges.

In the spirit, PM
Nguyen Xuan Phuc invited Prime Minister Ardern to visit Vietnam in an
appropriate time, and conveyed President Tran Dai Quang’s invitation to Governor-General
of New Zealand to pay a State visit to Vietnam.

The two sides also
agreed to implement the Action Programme for the 2017-2020 period in a drastic
and effective manner, and soon organise the sixth meeting of the Joint
Committee on economic and trade cooperation in Hanoi and the 11th Political
Consultation in New Zealand.

The two sides showed
their delight at the bilateral friendship and comprehensive partnership between
the two countries, towards the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive
Partnership in 2019, and the 45th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic
relations in 2020.

In defence-security,
PM Ardern agreed that the two sides should implement specific cooperation
within the newly-signed Action Programme on defence cooperation in the 2018-2021
period. The two sides need to promote affiliation in defence industry and
research, while strengthening collaboration in fighting trans-national
criminals, terrorism and drug trafficking amidst the complicatedly changing
security in the region.

In terms of economics and trade, both sides expressed
their satisfaction with positive bilateral trade growth which hit 1.24 billion
USD last year – a year-on-year rise of over 30 percent. They agreed on numerous
trade promotion activities, including the facilitation of farm produce exports,
in order to bring bilateral trade to 1.7 – 2 billion USD by 2020.

PM Phuc asked New Zealand to continue
facilitating the export of Vietnamese tropical fruits such as mango, dragon
fruit, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit and longan to its market, and expand
investment in Vietnam in the fields that it holds strength and Vietnam has demand
like mining, energy, infrastructure, hi-tech agriculture, education and
finance.

Regarding official development assistance
(ODA), the Vietnamese leader said he is satisfied with the efficiency of New
Zealand’s ODA projects in Vietnam. He called for the increased provision of the
assistance with the focus on agriculture and rural development, human resources
development, disaster risk management and climate change.

The New Zealand PM took this occasion to
announce two new ODA projects, namely a three-year programme worth 1.5 million
NZD (1.09 million USD) to help Vietnamese farmers increase their income and a
pilot project on renewable energy worth 500,000 NZD.

The two sides reached a consensus on
intensifying collaboration in such potential as education and labour.

They acknowledged that cooperation in
education and training is growing strongly and is one of the pillars of the
bilateral relations.

They set a target to raise the number of
Vietnamese students to 30 percent by 2020 through encouraging the exchange of
students between the two countries’ universities.

PM Ardern expressed her delight at positive
growth in bilateral tourism cooperation, which is reflected through the fact
that New Zealand welcomed 17,000 Vietnamese tourists last year.

She affirmed to maintain assistance for
Vietnam in human resources training, while backing the opening of direct air
routes linking the two countries, and committing to facilitating tourism and
trade cooperation.

The two PMs affirmed to push ahead
with cooperation and mutual support at regional and international forums of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)

PM Phuc thanked New Zealand for supporting
Vietnam to host the APEC 2017 successfully and become a non-permanent member of
the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure.

The New Zealand PM affirmed to support and
closely work with Vietnam in 2020 when the Southeast Asian country will take up
the role as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the
bloc and New Zealand will mark the 45th anniversary of dialogue partnership and
the fifth anniversary of strategic partnership.

New Zealand will host the APEC Year 2021 and
hoped to learn from Vietnam’s experience, she noted.

The two countries agreed to jointly implement
the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CP
TPP) and advocated the negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP).

The PMs were unanimous to entrust ministries and
relevant agencies to promote the two countries’ relations in a deep and
pragmatic manner across the fields in addition to promoting the exchange of a
roadmap for the bilateral strategic partnership and soon elevating the
bilateral relations as agreed by the two sides.

At the end of the talks, the PMs witnessed the
signing of three important documents, including an agreement between Vietnam’s
Ministry of Industry and Trade and New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade on economic and trade cooperation; a deal between Vietnam’s Ministry
of Industry and Trade and New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries on
cooperation in food safety and quality management; a strategic cooperation plan
between Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and New Zealand educational
agency on education and training for 2018-2020.

On the occasion, PM Ardern hosted a banquet for
her Vietnamese counterpart and members from the Vietnamese delegation.-VNA